


HE'S my soulmate????

by Sometimesimdumb



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Fluff, How Do I Tag, M/M, No Smut, Skephalo, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, i just love soulmate aus ok, uhh this is a reupload from wattpad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29037897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sometimesimdumb/pseuds/Sometimesimdumb
Summary: Skeppy and Bad finally meet up but this is a soulmate au shipping fic so u can guess what happens next
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Zak Ahmed/Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 5
Kudos: 184





	1. Chapter 1

“Bro, i'm so glad we’re finally gonna meet up!” Skeppy grinned and spun in his chair, giddy with excitement at the thought of finally meeting his best friend, Badboyhalo.  
“Oh my goodness, me too! I've been looking forward to this for so long, Skeppy.” Skeppy could hear bad quickly clap his hands in excitement and he smiled again. He absentmindedly reached his hand down to pet his dog, Rocco. His black palm ran through the dog’s fur, and Rocco looked up at him contentedly.  
Skeppy’s soul mark was a big one. The black mark stretched over most of his chest and the insides of both of his arms, which meant it was most likely a hug. Skeppy had never asked about Bad’s soul mark, although he was quite curious. He didn't have any traces of a mark on his hands or forearms, and he had never seen his chest or legs. The one part of a mark he could see on bad was his left ear, which was completely black. This looked absolutely hilarious on the unfortunately pale Bad, and Skeppy poked fun at it quite often.  
“Oh shit!” Skeppy looked at the clock on his monitor, which read 2 AM. “Dude oh my god my flights at 7. I HAVEN'T PACKED OH MY GOD” Skeppy stood up from his chair and moved towards his closet, accidentally pulling his headphones out of his pc.  
“LANGUAGE, YOU MUFFIN!” Bad yelled. The sound blasted through Skeppy’s speakers, causing Rocco to bark at the unfamiliar voice. Skeppy moved to quiet Rocco down, hoping he wouldn't wake his parents up.  
“Zak? Is everything okay in there?” Skeppy realized his mom was at his door and he dragged his hand over his face in embarrassment, standing up and walking toward the door.  
“I’m okay mom,” he said, opening the door to his slightly messy room, embarrassed. “I was just packing for my trip tomorrow.”  
“At 2 in the morning-” His mother said with her arms crossed and her eyebrow raised. “I don't even see your suitcase.”  
“Okay, I might have been procrastinating a little…” Skeppy said, scratching the back of his head and looking away from his mother.  
“Skeppy?” Bad’s voice boomed from Skeppy’s speakers again, causing Rocco to start barking again. Skeppy’s mom looked at him knowingly and patted his shoulder. Skeppy couldn't help but notice the dark blue, handprint-shaped soul mark wrapped around her wrist.  
“I’m going back to bed. You better not miss your flight, Zak.” She smiled and hugged him. “If I don't see you in the morning, have fun on your trip. I’ll miss you hun.” Skeppy said his goodbyes as well and went back into his room, shutting the door behind him. He plugged his headphones back into his pc and told Bad that he had to pack. They said their goodnights and Skeppy packed up his luggage and sat it by his door, before flopping down into his bed and blacking the fuck out.

Skeppy opened his tired eyes to his alarm clock blaring. The sun wasn't even up, but he headed out of the house and drove to the airport. He sent a quick text to bad to let him know he was on his way, before putting his phone down to pass through security. 

Bad sat at his desk, scrolling twitter and drinking his morning coffee, giddy with excitement at the thought of actually getting to meet Skeppy. They had known each other for about a year, and Skeppy had tried to get him to meet up with him quite often. Alas, Bad was deathly afraid of airplanes, and couldn't fly out to see him when he lived in LA. But now that they were both in florida, the distance between them was a lot more manageable.  
Bad’s phone dinged as he received a text from Skeppy that said he was on his way to the house at this very moment.  
Bad jumped up out of his chair filled with nerves and excitement. He rushed out of his room and started cleaning up the house he shared with his two roommates.  
“Sarah? Brandon?” he called down the hallway where Sarah and Brandon’s rooms were located. Sarah poked her head out of the door to her room.  
“Oh hey Darryl,” She said, stepping out into the living room where Bad was frantically cleaning the coffee table. “Did you need something?”  
“Good morning Sarah,” Bad said with a smile, his eyes focusing onto Sarah's bright green, hand-shaped soul mark directly under her left eye. “Yea, I just wanted you guys to know Skeppy- er, Zak, is gonna be coming over today. He's gonna sleep over for a few nights. I didn't want him to have to go through the hassle of renting a hotel and all that.”  
“Oh!” Sarah said happily, recognizing the name of Bad’s friend. “That's awesome, Darryl! I can't wait to meet him!”  
“Yeah me neither!” Bad smiled, feeling butterflies of excitement in his stomach. For a while, the two friends bustled around the living room, cleaning and talking to each other about their future houseguest.  
Suddenly something seemed to dawn upon Sarah. She looked at bad with a slightly confused expression as they stood in the living room of the three bedroom house.  
“Um… Darryl,” she started, tilting her head a bit. “Where is Skeppy gonna sleep?”  
Bad turned away from the table he had been cleaning to look at Sarah with a grimace on his face. Sarah returned the expression and the two frantically started trying to brainstorm solutions to the rather large problem they were now faced with.  
“Where's Brandon?” Bad asked, wondering if Brandon could let Skeppy use his room while he stayed over.  
“Ahhh!” Sarah said, glancing back down the hallway. “I don't know! He's either hungover or with his girlfriend!” She ran her hand through her brown hair, pacing the living room.  
“How did I not think of this?” Bad questioned out loud. He sat down on his couch with his head in his hands. He had been so excited for Skeppy to come over, and he didn't even have a bed for the guy. What kind of host was he? Bad sighed and resigned himself to the idea of sleeping on the floor and letting Skeppy use his bed while he was over. 

[A/N: I KNOW THE PACING IS ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS IM SO SORRY]


	2. Chapter 2

Skeppy’s flight was short and uneventful. He had, after all, been just going from one part of Florida to another. He had sat on the plane bouncing his leg out of nerves and excitement at finally getting to see his best friend. He played through their first time seeing each other in his head, thinking of how to react when he finally saw Bad. Did he hug him? Would that be too weird? Did he just like, wave at him? Would that be too awkward? Hell, they had been best friends for almost two years. Skeppy didn't think he should be this nervous.  
He rented an Uber to Bad’s house as he finally got his luggage from the baggage claim. He felt the tension bubbling up inside him as he thought about who would be there when he got out of this uber. His best friend. He thought of all the times they had shared, and grinned to himself, before realizing how weird that must have looked to the Uber driver. Skeppy regained his composure and sent Bad a quick “OMW!!” text.   
After a fairly long and boring drive, the Uber dropped Skeppy off in front of a nice-looking medium-sized house. Skeppy shook his arms to try and get some of the excitement out and grinned like an idiot as he stared at the front door. He walked up the stairs, dragging his bags behind him, and rang the doorbell. 

“Uhm, Darryl…” Sarah said, hearing a car door close. “I think Zak is here.”  
Bad felt a wave of anxiety rise up in him. He was so excited to meet Skeppy, but he had no clue how to greet him. He was torn between shaking his hand or giving him a hug. Whatever, he could decide when the moment arrived.   
Bad stood up and took a deep breath, trying to calm his fast-beating heart. Sarah  
gave him an encouraging thumbs up, which he returned weakly.   
The doorbell rang. Bad walked over to the door to open it for his best friend, the first time they would ever see each other in real life. He took a deep breath and flung the door open. A boy around the same height as him stood in front of him, dragging a large blue suitcase. He saw the boy’s brown eyes widen and a grin stretch across his tan face. He felt his own eyes tear up a bit. For a minute the two just stood there, taking in each other’s real life presence. Suddenly Bad found himself in a hug that pinned his arms to his sides and nearly knocked him flat to the ground. One side of the other boy’s head was pressed hard against his own. This is Skeppy.

This is Bad! It's really him! Skeppy pulled away from the hug, seeing Bad standing there dumbfounded, with teary eyes. Skeppy grinned as he felt his own eyes start to tear up.  
“Dude!” Skeppy said loudly, feeling the happiest he had felt probably in his entire life. “riIts you! I still don't believe it.” Skeppy shook his head, feeling a tear roll down his cheek as he stared at his best friend, who was just kinda standing there crying. Skeppy hugged him again and Bad hugged him back.   
“Geppy! Oh my goodness!” Bad said, pulling away and holding Skeppy by the shoulders. “I'm sorry I wasn't talking there, I was just so shocked that I was really seeing, you know, you!”   
“I know right? You look a lot different from your minecraft skin!” Skeppy joked, as a tear rolled down his face. “Ugh sorry, I didn't mean to get so emotional…” Skeppy chuckled.   
“Don’t apologize, you muffin!” Darryl took off his glasses to wipe the tears from his cheeks. “See, I'm crying too.” 

After the boys stopped crying, Bad introduced Skeppy to Sarah, and the two hugged, before sitting down and talking. They all seemed to get along very well. When everyone was done getting acquainted, it was already around 3 pm, and the three started talking about what they wanted to do for the rest of the day.   
“So Skeppy, you've never been down to this part of Florida have you?” Bad asked, sitting on the couch next to Sarah. Skeppy was sitting sideways in the armchair usually occupied by Brandon.   
“No siree I haven't,” Skeppy replied. “Is there anything cool to do around here?”  
“Well, I don't exactly get out much, so I don't really know…” Bad said, scratching the back of his head, mildly embarrassed. “I think Sarah might know some cool places though.”  
Sarah indeed did know some cool places to visit, and the three of them spent quite some time talking about where they wanted to go. Eventually, Skeppy had to excuse himself to go to the bathroom.  
Skeppy walked down the hall to the bathroom and did his business. But as he was washing his hands he noticed something… odd. They were blue?? It wasn't all too noticeable, but the dark black seemed to be fading into a teal color, “my favorite color” Skeppy thought to himself, staring down at his hands. He lifted up his shirt as well, seeing the same dark teal coloring his once-black chest. “My… soul mark? But who?” Skeppy ran through all the people he had touched in the last 24 hours. The only candidates he could think of were Sarah… and Bad. But Skeppy didn't even want to entertain the idea of his best friend being his soulmate. That shit sounded straight out of a fanfiction or something… not to mention that Skeppy didn't even like guys.

Meanwhile in the living room, Bad and Sarah were chilling on the couch, talking about Skeppy and where they wanted to go this afternoon.   
“Heyyyyy guys!” The door swung open and Brandon appeared in the doorframe, carrying a ton of grocery bags.   
“Oh, Brandon!” Bad said, hopping out of his seat to help Brandon with the groceries. “Thanks for getting the groceries! Oh, just so you know, My friend Skeppy- I mean Zak, is staying over for a few days.”  
“Oh nice! I can't wait to meet him.” Brandon said, unloading the groceries into the fridge and pantry.   
“Speaking of Skeppy,” Sarah started, “Where’d he go?”  
“Oh, I think he went to the bathroom.” Bad replied. “That muffin has been gone for quite a while though, I hope he's alright.”   
As if on cue, Skeppy exited the bathroom and came back to sit on the armchair.  
“Hey! You must be Brandon,” Skeppy said, giving the tall man a small wave. “Im Zak.”  
“Nice to meet you Zak!” Brandon said.   
“So did you guys plan anything while I was gone?” Skeppy asked, still a bit shaken from seeing his soul mark appear. He looked over to Sarah nervously before seeing something that he hadn't seen before.   
“Wait… her soul mark, it's right under her eye.” Sarah returned Skeppy’s gaze, smiling at him.   
“I think we were planning to go downtown,” Sarah said, misinterpreting Skeppy’s stare. “Is that right, Bad?” Bad turned towards Sarah and Skeppy, and Skeppy could see his ear, which was a deep shade of red. “It definitely was not like that when i first got here oh my god,” Skeppy thought to himself, “that means… Bad is my soulmate???”   
Skeppy could feel his eyes widen and his breath pick up, and he realized that he had to leave before Bad noticed his own soul mark had changed colors.   
“Yea! Downtown sounds fun.” Bad said,excited at the thought of getting to hang out with his best friend. He wiped his hands on the kitchen towel and turned to face Skeppy, who looked unusually pale and seemed to be hyperventilating. “Is that good with you Skep- er Zak? Wait, woah are you oka-”  
“Uh, actually,” Skeppy interrupted, standing up and walking towards his bags. “I gotta go, something uh, happened with my uhh... car.”  
“Zak!” Bad said, starting towards him, not believing even for a minute that car troubles could cause this type of reaction “What's wrong?”  
“Oh nothing, just gotta uhhhh, call someone about my car.” Skeppy waved Bad away and Bad stepped back, deciding it was probably better to give his best friend some room.  
The three roommates stared at him, wondering how on earth his car, which was still at his house in a whole different part of Florida, would make him leave their house, and why, if he was having car troubles, did he look like he was about to throw up?  
“Yea sorry, I really need to go... haha see you guys around.” Skeppy chuckled, grabbing all of his bags and walking towards the door very quickly. The roommates just stared after him, too shocked at his abrupt departure to say anything. Once Skeppy was safely on the porch and out of the eyesight of Bad, he pulled his sleeve back to look at his increasingly blue arm. “Shit shit shit” Skeppy thought, panicking. He called an Uber and paced the porch, hoping that no one would come out of the house as he waited. He could see the three roommates talking together out of the corner of his eye. Eventually the Uber pulled up and Skeppy borderline ran down the driveway to put his bags in the trunk and hop in the backseat. He told the driver to head to a hotel downtown as his head raced.


	3. Chapter 3

“That was… weird.” Sarah said, with a contemplative look on her face. Bad and his roommates were still staring at the door. Bad was lost in thought, wondering what on earth had caused Skeppy to just leave like that.   
“Sure was,” Brandon said. “Do you think he's okay?” He asked, sounding concerned, turning to look at Bad who was staring at the door, lost in thought.   
“I sure hope so…” Bad said, wondering if he had been the reason Skeppy had left. Maybe he wasn't what Skeppy had expected. Maybe Skeppy didn't like how he acted in real life. Bad walked over and flopped down face first onto the couch.   
“Aw, Darryl,” Sarah said, feeling bad for her sad, confused roommate. “Would muffins make you feel better?” Bad turned his head towards Sarah, smiling a bit weakly.  
“Yeah…” Bad said. “You know what? I think they would.” Bad sat up on the couch and took a deep breath, deciding to try and push Skeppy out of his thoughts for the moment and let him have some space to “fix his car” or whatever else he needed to do. “Did you get muffin mix at the store?” Bad turned to ask Brandon, who was leaning on the counter.   
“Oh you know it,” Brandon said, reaching over to the pantry to grab some. He pulled out a box of Bad’s favorite gluten free blueberry muffin mix and Bad smiled at him, happy to have roommates who cared so much about him.  
“Hey wait, um, Darryl...” Sarah said suddenly. Bad looked over to her, slightly concerned at her confused tone of voice and slight grimace. “What’s your favorite color again?”

“Hey bro…” Skeppy said into his phone, laying down on his hotel bed and staring at the ceiling. “Odd question but when did you realize you liked guys?”  
“Woah there Zak,” answered Harvey, “Not even a ‘hi Harv?’ no ‘how are you doin apple man?’ Im offended.”  
“Harv,” Skeppy said, rolling over to look out of the hotel window into the parking lot below him. “This is serious man.”  
“Ohhhhhhh shit bro!” Harvey said, sounding both excited and confused. “So who’s the lucky guy eh?”   
“We don't talk about that.” Skeppy responded, blushing slightly, still coming to terms with the fact that his soulmate was his best friend.  
“Sooooo do you have a crush??? Did he ask you out?” Harvey asked, very intrigued at who Skeppy’s mysterious stranger boy was.   
“Actually… it's a lot more than that.” Skeppy said.  
“No way, man did you find your soulmate???”  
“Mmmmmmhm” Skeppy said with a grimace.  
“AND HE'S A GUY???”  
“Yup.”  
“AND YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE STRAIGHT BEFORE THIS???”  
Skeppy covered his face with the hand that wasn't holding his phone to his ear. “Yes…”  
“Man i-” Harvey started “I mean, I've liked guys since I was really young but I only accepted it when I was around 15? I think?”   
Skeppy got up off of the bed and paced around the small, dim hotel room as he listened to his former roommate talk. Harvey told him about how his parents had been accepting, but it was still hard to get the courage to come out. He talked about his first boyfriend and his most recent one. As he talked, Skeppy started to realize that he had never thought about girls or guys in a serious romantic way before. He had had a few girlfriends, sure, but he had never felt comfortable enough to go any further than hand holding. He had never even considered guys, though, and spent a few minutes asking Harvey about how girls and guys were in relationships. He eventually said goodnight to Harvey and the two ended their call. Skeppy realized he was hungry and headed downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant.   
“Do you guys have chicken tenders?” Skeppy asked the waiter, craving some good old comfort food. The waiter confirmed that they did have chicken tenders and Skeppy sat down at a table all by himself in the near-deserted, fancy-looking restaurant. He felt small and alone and confused. He considered calling his mom, but decided against it as she was probably asleep by now. Eventually his chicken tenders got brought out and he ate them as he scrolled through Twitter. He noticed a DM from Bad, but decided to ignore it for the time being and maybe get back to it in the morning. Many of his fans were speculating on whether or not he and Bad had met up, which was not uncommon, and he smiled at the irony of the fact that they had actually met up, but not posted anything about it. He liked a few fanarts and wrote up a tweet explaining that he would be going on a quick hiatus for probably a few days. He hit send tweet and put his phone in his pocket, finishing up his tenders.   
When Skeppy got back to the room it was nearly 1 am. He felt extremely tired, but he could not fall asleep. He decided to message some of his close friends, the Idots.

[sorry if this next part is confusing at all! Please tell me if i can do anything better in comments]

Idiots GC:

Skepee: heyyyy bois how r u

Zelkam: Hey Skep, whats up bro?

The Girl: GC active at 1 am?

Spifey: what happened?  
Zelkam: IDK, Skeppy just messaged.

toes: hey babes

The Girl: shut the fuck up

toes: lmao 

Spifey: ew zelk autocaps

toes: ew

The Girl: ew

Zelkam: At least my name isn't “toes” or “The Girl”

Skepee: calm down bois, god were really going for each other's throats here lmao

toes: arent we always 

Spifey: ^^^^

Skepee: i cant sleep, thats y i messaged :/

Zelkam: Do you want me to sing you to sleep? I'm a very good singer.

Skepee: we all know thats a lie 

toes: ^^^^^

Zelkam: Wow, harsh. I'm leaving, goodbye.

Zelkam left

The Girl: wow he actually did

Spifey: L

toes: F

Skepee: hey, random question but do any of u have ur soul marks 

toes: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH

Spifey: something u want to tell us?????

The Girl: skeppyyyyy i see u, now who’s the lucky girl??

Skepee: guys omg stop, i just didn't know what to talk about

MegaPP added Zelkam

Zelkam: Skeppy got his soul mark? Who was it?

Skepee: NOOO I DIDN'T GET MY SOUL MARK PLEASE GUYS I WAS JUST CURIOUS

MegaPP: sure

Spifey: ok fine, ill believe you i guess, but nah i havent got mine yet.

The Girl: mines on my ass did i tell you guys that

toes: can i see

The Girl: shut the fuck up no you cant

Zelkam: Man, I don't have a soul mark.

MegaPP: lmao lonely

Zelkam: Okay, mute.

MegaPP left

The groupchat kept talking as Skeppy got up and went to the bathroom mirror. He looked at his reflection. He was wearing one of his signature blue hoodies, only slightly stained by barbecue sauce from his chicken that night. He had bags under his brown eyes and his hair was messy. His hair. His hair was also… bright blue. Skeppy jumped, shocked that his hair had changed color as well. He stared into the mirror as he ran his hands through it in confusion. I mean it makes sense, he thought to himself, staring at his bright shock of blue hair on the side of his head. I didn't notice the mark because my hair was already black, and I guess I did touch the side of Bad’s head. Skeppy quickly pushed Bad out of his head again, brushed his teeth and splashed some water on his face, and then changed into his pajamas. He flopped back down into bed and read the recent messages from the group chat, smiling at his friend’s antics before drifting off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Bad looked at Sarah in confusion. “My favorite color?” He asked, tilting his head slightly. “I mean, I’d say it would have to be red, why?” Sarah’s eyes went wide and Bad could feel his heart beat faster out of worry at Sarah’s scared expression.   
“What’s wrong?” Brandon asked, walking out of the kitchen and into the living room where Bad and Sarah were sitting. Sarah pulled out her phone and quickly snapped a picture of the side of Bad’s face.  
“Hey, what was that for?” Bad asked. Sarah showed him the picture and his eyes widened. My ear… it's red!   
“Oh my goodness,” Bad said, scooting away from his roommates and covering his mouth with one hand and his ear with the other. His mind was going a million miles an hour with panic and shock. “Oh my goodness… no way.”   
“Oh dude!” Brandon said happily. “You found your soulmate! That's great!”  
Sarah turned to stare at him, not saying anything as Bad tried to calm his racing mind.  
“Oh wait…” Brandon said, suddenly realizing the implications of Skeppy’s quick departure earlier along with the placement of Bad’s soul mark. “Ohhhhh...” Sarah gave him a worried look as they watched their roommate take off his glasses and rub his eyes.  
Bad stood up and took a deep breath. “I'm going on a walk. I need to clear my head.” He grabbed his jacket and headed out the door, the cool air hitting his face.   
Skeppy, huh. He thought to himself as he walked. I mean, he’s attractive… and nice… and my best friend. Oh my goodness. He’s my soulmate??? Bad took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. He's a guy- Bad kicked a rock down the sidewalk, following its path with his bright green eyes. He sighed and stopped in front of one of his neighbor’s houses. The rock skittered ahead of him and he watched it go before turning around and heading back towards his house. As he headed back, he sent Skeppy a quick “We need to talk” DM, but he didn't really expect the other boy to respond right away. He wouldn't have either.  
When Bad got back he headed straight to his room, passing right by Sarah and Brandon, who were baking together in the kitchen. They stopped their conversation as he passed them, but didn't say a word to him. Bad was thankful that they respected that he wanted to be alone.   
He didn't know what to do. Bad sat aimlessly on his bed with his doggo Lucy cuddled up next to him, trying to think about anything but Skeppy. Oh! He thought, quickly grabbing his phone off the nightstand. Maybe my friends can distract me. 

Muffinteers GC:  
Muffinhead: Hi guys O_o how are you doing  
sapdaddy: bad!!!! How r u man???

Dre: oh hey

gogy: Heey bad whats up?

Muffinhead: Oh not much I just took a walk uwu how are you guys

sapdaddy: thats poggers bro on jah!!! did u have fun??

Muffinhead: Yes! I kicked a rock :D

Dre: haha nice. 

gogy: compelling conversation

Muffinhead: Anyways, don't you have your soul mark, Dream? O-O

Dre: odd question, but yea i do… why? 

gogy: ooo bad, are you making moves on dream? 

sapdaddy: wowwwww, bad

Muffinhead: <_< be quiet you muffinheads

Muffinhead: I just wanted to ask >:(

The four friends carried on with their conversation for quite a while. They eventually got to the topic of a new plugin George was coding and Bad had a lot of fun talking about the ups and downs of George’s struggles to work out all the kinks in the code and watching Dream and Sapnap poke fun at him. Bad forgot all about his significant life changes for a time, and he talked with his boys until Sarah yelled, asking him to come to the kitchen.   
Bad shut his phone off and hopped off his bed, walking out of his room and into the apartment’s kitchen where he could smell muffins baking.   
Bad gasped. “You two made muffins without me???” He exclaimed indignantly. “I am offended.” His roommates looked at each other, wondering why he was back to his usual, dramatic, funny self so quickly.   
“Um… we were actually making them to cheer you up but-” Brandon said, looking at Bad, who was looking back at him. “I mean you seem pretty happy now.”   
“ANYWAYS” Sarah butted in with a fresh tray of muffins before Bad had a chance to think about Skeppy. She noticed Bad’s soul mark becoming increasingly more red. “Take a muffin.”   
Bad took a muffin and ate it. It was delicious and he smiled, still keeping his thoughts at bay for the moment.   
“How is it?” Brandon asked expectantly. “I've never actually made muffins before!”  
“Wow, really?” Bad asked, mouth still full of muffin. “I never would have guessed! These are great!”   
Brandon smiled happily and Sarah watched her roommates enjoy the muffins. She smiled and grabbed one for herself as Bad and Brandon talked about their favorite baked goods. Eventually, everyone had their fill and Sarah pointed out that it was getting dark, much to everyone’s surprise.  
“Time flies when you're having fun I guess,” Bad said with a yawn. He stood up from the barstool he had taken a seat on and stretched, rubbing his eyes as he and his roommates said their goodnights and walked off to their own rooms.   
Bad laid down happy, thinking about his roommates and muffins. He got under his covers and rolled over, opening Twitter on his phone, planning to scroll the timeline until he felt tired enough to sleep.   
Oh. Right. The first tweet Bad saw was about Him. Bad turned his phone screen down onto the mattress and snuggled up with Lucy. He put his glasses over onto the night stand beside his bed and sat there for hours, simply thinking about soulmates, skeppy, himself, anything that came to mind. Eventually, Bad’s mind tired itself out and he drifted off to sleep feeling confused and lonely. 

Skeppy rolled over in his hotel room bed, yawning and stretching as he sat up and opened his eyes. All that had happened yesterday was still fresh in his mind despite his 10 hours of sleep. He sat in the comfy hotel bed, looking at the skyline. He had absolutely no idea what to do from here. He turned his ideas over and over in his head, but nothing came to the surface. He decided to go and grab a coffee and he got dressed and headed downstairs to the hotel lobby. There was a coffee machine right by the front desk and he grabbed a coffee with plenty of milk and sugar before heading out the door. He figured a walk around the block might clear his head. 

INCOMING CALL: Zelkam

Skeppy pulled the phone out of his pocket, surprised to be getting a call this early in the morning. He saw that it was Zelk and picked up the phone, still walking along the downtown sidewalk.   
“Hey man,” Zelk said. “Is there anything you want to talk about.”  
Skeppy immediately knew something was wrong. Zelk never usually sounded as… passive-aggressive as he did now.  
“Um… no?” Skeppy answered, hoping that that was the right thing to say. “Why’d you call me?”  
“Well, you know how i'm great at giving advice.” Zelk responded.   
Skeppy was shocked. It wasn't like Tapl to spill his secrets. He still held hope though that maybe Zelk was talking about something else.   
“Yea…” Skeppy said, waiting for Zelk to finish his thought.   
“So tell me about your soul mark.” Skeppy exhaled the breath he didn't know he had been holding.   
“So the secret’s out huh.” Skeppy said, waving his drink in the air. “How on earth did you get Tapl to tell you?”  
“Oh, Tapl knows?” Zelk asked. “I had no idea.” Skeppy could pretty much hear him grinning on the other side of the phone.  
“Wait what?” Skeppy asked. “But he's the only one I told!”  
“Oh come on man, the way you were acting in the groupchat last night? It was painfully obvious that something had happened with it. So, who's the lucky gal?”  
Skeppy stood on the sidewalk in shock. Had he really been that obvious? He had thought that the others would have just seen it as a random question, but apparently not.  
“Does anyone else know?” Skeppy asked, panicking a little at the thought of his soul mark’s activation getting out.   
“I mean, not to my knowledge,” Zelk replied, sounding a bit put off by how scared Skeppy sounded. “I can drop it if you want…”  
Skeppy breathed a sigh of relief. “Yea… if you don't mind. It's just a lot to think about, you know?”  
“Oh of course man, I got you.” Zelk said, a bit sad that he couldn't get the gossip out of Skeppy. They talked for a few more minutes, which improved Skeppy’s mood, before Skeppy had to walk back to the hotel.  
He flopped back down into his fluffy bed and opened his dms with Bad. 

Bestfriendhalo: Hey, we need to talk.

Skeppy continued staring at the DM, no clue how he should respond. They obviously needed to talk, and Skeppy was missing his best friend anyway. They usually called almost every day and Skeppy was feeling lonelier than he had in awhile. Eventually, Skeppy decided to call Harvey and tell him everything. He had given him some good advice before when they had been roommates, so Skeppy shot his shot. Harvey let him vent to him for close to 20 minutes before telling him to give Bad a call whenever he was ready to confront his soulmate. Skeppy made Harv promise not to tell anyone else and Harvey of course obliged.   
Skeppy was back to staring at his phone, wanting to call Bad and just find out what was going on. But he was scared. Scared of confrontation, rejection, scared of his feelings.   
He shut his eyes and pressed the call button.


	5. Chapter 5

Bad woke up and stumbled into the kitchen for his morning coffee. Brandon was already back from his morning workout and was currently in the kitchen, drinking a kale shake.  
“Hey bad!” He greeted the tired man. “How’d you sleep?” Bad looked at him and the bags under his green eyes seemed to answer Brandon’s question for him. “Rough night, huh?” As Bad passed Brandon, the taller man patted him on the back. Bad rubbed his eyes under his glasses and smiled at his roommate before grabbing a coffee and a muffin from the fridge and going back to his room.   
He laid in bed, eating his muffin and sipping his coffee as he mulled over what had happened the previous day. He checked his DMs with Skeppy, still not seeing a response. He sighed and covered his eyes with his arm. He felt Rat jump up on the bed and snuggle next to him.   
“Oh, Lucy!” Bad greeted her. The dog looked at him. “Hi baby!” Bad picked Rat up and held her up in the air above his head before bringing her down to his chest, where she laid down. Just under the collar of his shirt Bad could see his red soul mark contrasting his skin.   
He and Lucy laid there for a while. Bad thinking about Skeppy and his soul mark and his roommates and his friends and his sexuality… His mind was bouncing thoughts around relentlessly like a pinball machine. Lucy however, was thinking about bacon and how much she loved Bad.   
Eventually, Bad heard a ding from his phone and reached over to grab it from the night stand, hoping it was Skeppy. It turned out to just be a text from Sarah asking if he wanted to go downtown. He replied that that sounded fun and went back to staring at his ceiling. Before long, Lucy started licking his face and he sat up, laughing.  
“You muffin!” He scolded the rat. “Bad rat!” Rat could tell he wasn't actually angry however, and she jumped down from the bed and grabbed one of Bad’s slippers, wagging her tail as she bolted out of the room.  
“HEY!” Bad yelled, hurrying after her. “GIVE THAT BACK!” Lucy was scooped up by Brandon, who returned the slipper to Bad.   
“You look much more awake now, King,” He said to Bad with a grin. “Did this silly girl steal your shoe again?”   
“Ughhh, yea she did.” Bad said, taking the squirming Rat from Brandon’s arms. “I gotta teach her to stop doing that.”  
“She’s gonna tear up all your shoes before long,” Brandon replied, leaning on the counter.  
“I know right? She destroyed my favorite pair a while ago and I haven't bothered to get new ones.”  
“Aw, but you can't stay mad at her.”  
“I know, she's too cute!” Bad said, booping her nose. “It should be a crim-”  
Bad’s phone rang and he glanced at the screen. The message he had been both waiting for and dreading shone back up at him.

INCOMING CALL: Skeppy

“So…” Skeppy started the conversation. “We kinda have a lot to talk about.”  
“That's an understatement,” Bad replied.  
“Ok you're not wrong but that's not what we're talking about is it?” Skeppy retorted, more anxious than angry  
“Oooo-kay then,” Bad responded. “Well first of all, are you okay? I was really worried when you just ran out of the house like you did… I mean I get why you did it but…”  
“Well I think so,” Skeppy said, relieved that Bad wasn't mad at him. He didn't know why but he thought the other man would have been angry at him for activating his soul mark. “I mean, i'm really confused and like- freaking out, but I'm good... I think.”  
“That doesn't sound very good, Skeppy.” Bad said.   
“Well what about you then?” Skeppy questioned.  
“Okay well,” Bad started, “Not much better than you, you muffinhead.”  
“Okay I'm sorry this is so awkward over the phone do you like, want to meet up and get coffee and actually talk or something.” Skeppy interrupted, hoping that Bad would agree that this would be something better done in person than over the phone.   
“Oh my goodness I was hoping you would ask,” Bad said.   
“Thank God. What's a good place to get coffee around here?”

Skeppy saved the address and threw on some fancier clothes to go on his “date” Nope let's not think of this as a date nope nope. He walked out of the hotel again and started walking on his way to the little shop Bad had recommended that they meet at.

Bad changed into some nicer clothes than his pajamas and brushed his hair before heading out to the car. He was still shocked every time he saw his red ear in the mirrors. He backed out of the driveway and started driving down the roads he had memorized years ago.

NEW GROUP: Skeppy, Zelkam, Harvey  
Harvey: yo Skep whats going on?

Zelkam: Why am I here?

Skeppy: im walking to a coffee shop rn to meet with him help

Zelkam: What???

Zelkam: Who is He?

Harvey: him??? wait omg who

Skeppy: omg wait ok give me a min

Skeppy got to the little shop at 10:30 AM, a full 30 minutes before he and Bad had planned to meet up there. He spent some of this time filling Zelk and Harvey in on what had been happening recently in his love life and they both listened with open ears.

Skeppy: i got my soul mark.

Harvey: yea… go on…

Zelkam: Who?

Skeppy: and my soulmate is Bad.

Harvey: WHAT

Harvey: BADBOYHALO???

Zelkam: WHAT NO WAY

Zelkam: HE'S A DUDE

Skeppy: I KNOW RIGHT HELP I THOUGHT I WAS STR

Skeppy hastily put his phone up as he saw Bad walk into the Cafe. He noticed Bad’s red ear and pushed back his own blue hair, looking down at the table awkwardly. He drummed his fingers on the glossy wood, not looking at Bad as he sat down across from him. The two sat in silence for a few minutes and Skeppy could feel Bad’s leg moving the table as he bounced it.   
“Okay…” Bad started eventually. Skeppy looked up and noticed his face was extremely red and in any other situation he would have laughed. He met Bad’s green gaze and felt that his own face was already very warm. “So this is definitely not what I imagined our first meetup to be like.”  
“Yea…” Skeppy agreed. The two awkwardly laughed a little before the waitress came over to take their orders. Bad ordered a black coffee and Skeppy got a green tea and a croissant. “Well so, how do you feel about me? I guess we can start there.”  
“Well,” Bad started, cracking his knuckles nervously. “I mean, you're very handsome, and very nice, and I've known you for what feels like forever. I like spending time with you… and yeah- i don't know.” Bad’s blush deepened and he covered his face with his hands.   
“Aw, Bad, don't get upset, it's okay-” Skeppy comforted him, putting his hand on the other man’s shoulder. Bad leaned back in his seat and covered his eyes as we wiped them a little under his glasses.  
“Sorry about that.” He sniffed, still covering his eyes. “Im just kinda overwhelmed right now.”   
“No, it's ok! I am too,” Skeppy reassured him, handing him a napkin from the dispenser on the table. “I suppose I'm just pretending nothing is different.”   
Bad revealed his slightly red eyes and blew his nose. “So, um, what do you feel about me?” He asked Skeppy, who also blushed a deeper shade of red and laughed nervously.   
“Dude, to be honest i'm so confused about so much right now. I thought I was straight like until I talked to Harv yesterday and I realized I might not be? But it's a lot to think about.” Skeppy rambled nervously, ripping up a napkin absentmindedly. “But in any case, you're like the most entertaining person I know and I really like spending time with you.”  
“Ugh, this whole thing is so confusing.” Bad said, balling his fists in frustration. The waiter came by with their drinks and Skeppy’s croissant. “I hate it here.”   
Skeppy giggled, but quickly tried to suppress it.  
“Geppy this is serious!” Bad exclaimed, nearly spilling his coffee as he gestured with the cup.  
“I KNOW I KNOW,” Skeppy said, still trying not to laugh. “I've just never heard you say ‘i hate it here’ before, it caught me off guard.” Bad rolled his eyes with a smile.  
“Ok ok, well I mean,” Bad said, taking a deep breath and getting back on track. Skeppy sipped his tea and burned his tongue, but watched Bad as he talked. “So, we are soulmates, and we like spending time with each other, and we are both attracted to men in some capacity.”   
“‘In some capacity.’” Skeppy mocked. “You sound like my highschool english essays.”  
“Skeppyyyyyy” Bad scolded.   
“Sorry I'm just nervous and I have no idea what to say.” Skeppy admitted, embarrassed. “But I mean, yea we are soulmates, thats crazy to think about… Wait can I see your soul mark?”  
“Oh, uh, sure!” Bad responded, taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves to reveal the red bands on his upper arms where Skeppy had pinned them to his body with his hug. He also tilted his head to give skeppy a better view of his ear. “I don't think I can show you my torso in a restaurant but it's mostly red as well. It honestly scared me a few times when I looked in the mirror.” Bad said with a chuckle. “How about you? Where's your soul mark?”   
“I mean, mine is pretty similar to yours,” Skeppy started, taking off his jacket and turning his bright blue wrists and palms up to face Bad. “I also have this thing, which honestly took a minute to notice,” Skeppy continued, looking down and pointing at the blue hair near the back of his head.   
“Wait, how the muffin did you not notice that?” Bad interrupted.  
“Well I mean, I couldn't see it with my bare eyes and I guess it wasn't noticeable in the mirror for a while.” Bad nodded in response and Skeppy pulled down his t-shirt collar a bit to show that his chest was blue. “I probably also shouldn't take my shirt off in here but you get the gist.”  
“Wow.” Bad said, thinking. “I can't believe we never talked about our soul marks with each other! That's crazy!”  
“Right?” Skeppy asked. “Like it seems like such an obvious thing to ask about.”   
“Ugh, dude im so glad we met up to talk about this, that phone conversation was torture.” Bad said, sipping his coffee.  
Skeppy checked his phone. “Do you maybe want to, I don't know, hang out or something? Like go to a park or some stores? It's only 1:30.”  
“Oh that sounds great!” Bad responded, checking his own phone impulsively. “Do you want to stay at the hotel again or would you like to come back to my place?”  
“Oh my god your roommates probably think I'm so weird.” Skeppy said, dragging his hand down his face with a little laugh. “I just like, ran away.”  
“Nah, i'm sure they don’t think you're weird.” Bad reassured him. “Brandon likes disappearing for like days at a time.”  
“Okok,” Skeppy agreed. “I'll go back to your place. I want to meet your doggo.” Skeppy smiled at Bad as he gasped.  
“Oh my goodness! You haven't met Rat!” Bad said, surprised. “You need to meet her, she's such a sweetheart.”  
Skeppy finished his drink and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “Do you think she would get along with Rocco?”   
The two eventually finished their drinks and talked all the way to Bad’s car. The temperature had dropped quite a bit, and Skeppy was chilly. When they got into the car, Bad immediately turned on the heaters and Skeppy thanked him as they drove off to grab Skeppy’s stuff from the hotel.


	6. Chapter 6

Skeppy went up to his room with Bad and packed all his stuff up. Bad sat on the bed, looking aimlessly around the room. Skeppy kept catching Bad looking at him and then quickly looking away, which made him snicker under his breath.   
“What are you laughing at?” Bad said, obviously a bit embarrassed.   
“Oh, nothing,” Skeppy responded and continued packing. When he was done, he and Bad headed down on the elevators and stepped out into the chilly air. They put Skeppy’s stuff into the trunk and Bad started driving to his house. Skeppy anxiously twiddled his thumbs and neither of the men spoke for a while. The comfortable conversation from the cafe seemed to have worn out and they sat in uncomfortable silence. Skeppy glanced over at Bad a few times, and he thought he saw Bad glancing at him, but he couldn't be sure.   
“Bad.” Skeppy said for no reason in particular. The overwhelming silence was finally broken.  
“Yes?” Bad said, still keeping his eyes on the road.   
“Your eyes are beautiful.” Skeppy looked straight ahead, hoping that Bad wouldn't look over at him. He shot a glance bad’s way to see that he was blushing and Skeppy quickly looked out his window.   
“T-thank you Skeppy,” Bad said, obviously embarrassed at the unwarranted compliment.  
“No problem.” Skeppy smiled to himself a bit as he watched the highway fly by his window. 

When the two finally arrived back at Bad’s house, Brandon greeted them at the door and helped Skeppy carry some of his bags into Bad’s room. Skeppy took a seat on the very clean floor and Bad sat on his bed, unbuttoning and re-buttoning his jacket. Skeppy took a look around the room. It was very minimalistic and it had a bright red accent wall opposite from the door. He noticed Bad’s bulky PC sitting on the desk. He got up and walked over to it, noticing a small cyan figure on top of the case.  
“Bad?” He asked, picking up the figure and turning towards Bad. “Is this… me?”  
“Oh!” Bad said as his face flushed almost as red as his ear. “Er, yeah. I put it there cause it's like you're always with me.” Bad blushed somehow redder. “That's so corny, I'm sorry,” He said, covering his face with his hands.  
“No that's actually really cute…” Skeppy said, still holding the figure. “I wish I had one of you to be honest.” He looked back over at Bad, only to see that he was still covering his face. “Hey, dude are you alright?” He went over and sat down beside Bad. Bad didn't reply. “It's okay,” Skeppy said before Bad looked up at him with a distressed expression on his face.  
“I- I don't know.” He said with a sigh. “This all just... happened so fast, you know? It's like I had no time to think about anything, I just got thrown into all of this…”   
“I definitely feel you,” Skeppy started, patting Bad's back a bit awkwardly. “This did happen so fast.” Skeppy thought for a moment before continuing. “But hey! I'm here, you're here, we can figure this whole crazy situation out together!” Bad looked over at him and gave a small smile before abruptly wrapping Skeppy in a hug. Skeppy sat there a bit surprised for a few seconds before wrapping his arms around Bad as well. They stayed like that for some time before Sarah knocked on the door. They hastily scooted apart.  
“Come in,” Bad said, glancing from Skeppy to the door.  
“I just wanted to make sure you two were alright?” She said, not opening the door.   
“We’re good,” Bad said. “Thank you for asking though!”  
“Ok, just checking!” Her footsteps faded away down the hall. Bad looked over at Skeppy. Skeppy noticed just how vibrant his eyes were. The two looked away at about the same time.   
“You know, your eyes are really pretty too, Skeppy.” Bad said.   
“Mine are so boring, they're just brown,” Skeppy said. “Yours are like, blue and green and a little yellow, they are so beautiful… I could get lost in them.” Skeppy noticed that he had in fact been staring into Bad’s eyes without really noticing. “Oh, Sorry.” He concluded, pulling his sleeves over his hands.  
“Well, they're like deep brown,” Bad said, looking at Skeppy’s eyes. “Wait, come a bit closer,” He got close to Skeppys face and stared into his eyes. “You know what?” he breathed. A blush crept across Skeppy’s face as his soulmate was just inches from him.   
“What?” Skeppy whispered, staring back at Bad.  
“They kind of remind me of my Rat’s eyes!” Bad smiled before seeming to realize what he had done and he stood up and walked a few steps away, his face turning red once more.  
“Er- sorry.” He said, adjusting his glasses.  
“No, it's fine,” Skeppy responded with a smile. “I just honestly was not expecting that at all.” Something scratched on the door and the two boys looked away from each other to the source of the sound. Bad stood up and opened it to reveal a small white dog.  
“Oh my goodness!” Bad looked back at Skeppy as he scooped up the fluffy little dog. “You didn't get to meet Rat did you?”   
“No,” Skeppy started, watching as Bad walked over to him holding the dog. “She's so cute though! Can I hold her?” He extended his arms and Bad placed the puppy down. Skeppy held her close to his chest and Rat adjusted herself in his arms. Skeppy looked up at Bad with a grin. “I love her already.”  
“I'm glad,” Bad said, returning the smile and taking a seat next to Skeppy. He scratched her chin as Skeppy held her. “How’s mister Rocco doing?”  
Skeppy smiled and told him about how Rocco had nearly eaten the entire turkey last Thanksgiving. That got a laugh out of Bad, who told Skeppy that Lucy had eaten six whole muffins last week. The two ended up trading stories about their dogs for what felt like hours. They laughed together as Lucy slept in Skeppy’s arms.  
“You probably miss him.” Bad said, flopping down to lay on his neatly made bed.  
“Yea, I do.” Skeppy said, laying down as well. Rat readjusted herself, curling herself up on Skeppy’s stomach and going back to sleep. “But my parents and my sister take good care of him.” He shrugged. “He's a big boy, but he's really sweet. I can tell he loves me, you know?”  
“Yea I get that,” Bad responded, looking over and giving Skeppy a soft smile. “I can tell she loves me.” He nodded towards Rat. “I can tell she loves you already too.” Bad grabbed Rat from Skeppy’s chest and held her up in the air over him. “Hii baby!” He said, smiling at the sleepy, slightly angry looking dog.   
“Dude,” Skeppy said as Bad played with Rat and he scrolled Twitter. “What if we started a stream?”

Bad looked over at him, shocked at the proposal. Lucy dangled in the air unamused as he held her. “Are you crazy??” He asked.  
“Well, we can't just- you know, meet up and give our fans nothing!” Skeppy countered.  
“I mean, I guess-” Bad said. “But our soul marks! What if they see them?”   
“Well… we can just say we’re not soulmates if they ask?” Skeppy’s suggestion sounded like more of a question.  
“We can't just lie to them like that, Skeppy!” Bad said.   
“Uhhh what if we made it so they couldn't see our soul marks.” Skeppy suggested again.   
“Skeppy.” Bad started, “Your hair is bright blue. My ear is red. How are we going to hide that, you muffinhead?”  
Skeppy looked up at the ceiling, trying to brainstorm some ideas. “Well,” he started. “I was going to dye my hair anyway, so I could just say I actually did it, and you could just- not turn around?” Bad squinted for a minute, seemingly deep in thought.  
“You know what?’ He asked, sitting up and tucking Lucy under his arm. “Let's do it.”   
The two soulmates got up and started prepping for the stream. Bad sat in his gaming chair and Skeppy pulled a chair from the living room to sit in. they decided that it would be the best if Bad started the stream like nothing was out of the ordinary and Skeppy could just jump in whenever he wanted.   
Badboyhaloislive went live!: Special Stream!! :D  
“Hey guys!” Skeppy sat on the bed and watched as Bad greeted his viewers. He was shaking from the excitement. The fans would be so happy they finally met up. He grinned and pet Lucy anxiously, still watching as his soulmate started up the game and joined his server. “I know it's a bit of an odd time for a stream,” Skeppy glanced at the clock. 5:12. “but today is a very special day.” Skeppy opened the stream on his phone. The chat was going wild, mostly correctly predicting that he had met up with Bad. Skeppy opened Twitter, scrolling on his timeline a bit and watching his fans talk about Bad’s mysterious special stream.   
Ooo Bads doing a special stream? I can't wait to see what the surprise is! :) He tweeted, stifling a laugh as Bad’s phone dinged with a twitter notification. Bad looked over at Skeppy and shot him a smile accompanied by an eyeroll upon seeing him cover his laugh. The chat went wild as Bad turned back to his PC, demanding to know who he had looked at.   
“I was just looking at my Rat you muffinheads!” Bad said. “Hi Lucy!” He looked back to the bed where Skeppy and Rat were sitting. He turned to his PC and continued the stream.  
Bad streamed alone for about an hour. The chat was running wild with theories about what the eventual “surprise” would be, most of them talking about Skeppy. On twitter, lots of people were also anxious to see the surprise. Skeppy walked over to the computer and leaned down over the webcam, letting a tiny bit of his black hair show up on the screen. He snickered as he looked at Bad, who was pretending nothing had happened.   
“What are you guys talking about?” he asked, as chat was flooded with questions about whose hair had appeared for a split second. had popped into frame. “Hair? Is there hair on my webcam??? Hold on..” Bad turned off his camera to “clean it” and put it back up on his computer. “Is that better?” Skeppy was rolling on the bed, trying his hardest not to laugh and blow his cover already. The chat continued spamming with questions, but Bad ignored them for the most part and continued like normal.   
Skeppy opened Twitter again and snapped a photo of himself, including a tiny bit of Lucy's hair in the shot. How are u guys today? :) he wrote as the caption before posting it. Bad’s phone dinged again and Skeppy watched as he opened the twitter notification.   
“Awww, Skeppy posted a photo!” Bad said to the stream. “I can't wait to meet him in real life!” Bad looked over to Skeppy who was still sitting on his bed. Skeppy decided that this would be a good moment to jump into frame and so he walked over to Bad and his pc and took a seat next to him.


	7. Chapter 7

“Hii guys,” Skeppy greeted the stream with a smile. The chat went wild. “How are you guys today?” His phone went off with about a million notifications at once. He and Bad looked over as Bad’s phone buzzed as well.   
“Seems like you muffinheads are glad to see us!” Bad said with a little laugh.   
“Sure does,” Skeppy added. “My phone is like, just about to overheat.”  
The two streamed and talked to the chat for a while, before Skeppy noticed that people were slowly starting to comment on his blue spot of hair. He looked at Bad nervously and Bad returned the glance. The chat was soon flooded with “skeppy dyed his hair??” “Skeppy’s hair looks cool!” and other variations of that.   
“I see you guys noticed my hair,” Skeppy said, ruffling it a bit. “Yea I dyed it a few days ago, do you like it?”   
“It looks great doesn't it?” Bad said. “Blue really suits you, Skeppy.” Bad smiled at skeppy before turning his focus back to the game of woolwars he had been playing. But in turning to look at Skeppy he had slipped up. His previously black ear had been exposed. The entire stream knew he had gotten his soul mark.The chat immediately started commencing on it and Skeppy looked at the oblivious Bad, concerned. The stream was already getting long, about 6 hours, and Skeppy felt like he should try and end the stream before Bad noticed that everyone was aware he had his soul mark.  
“Badddddd,” Skeppy whined in his streamer voice. “Can we go get dinner? I'm hungry.”  
“Oooh,” Bad said, still pretty focused on his woolwars game, “Yea! That would be fun! The stream is pretty long anyways, I'll end it after this round.” After a few minutes, Bad died, and Skeppy rushed to hit his end stream hotkey before he could give his whole long-winded outro and read too much of chat.  
“Hey! What was that for?” Bad complained. “I didn't get to say goodbye to all those muffinheads!”  
“...Read the chat Bad.” Skeppy said seriously. He watched as Bad’s lighthearted frown turned into a look of shock.   
“Oh my goodness,” Bad said. “When did I show my ear?”   
“When you turned to look at my hair.” Skeppy answered.  
“Ohhhh my goodness… Do you think they know?”  
“I doubt it- I mean, I didn't show much of my arms so hopefully they just think we got our soul marks around the same time?” Skeppy sat deep in thought before his stomach grumbled. He looked over to Bad. “Can we like, actually get some food? I’m actually pretty hungry.”  
“Of course!” Bad said, standing up and grabbing his black and red coat. “What kind of food do you like?”  
“Honestly, breakfast would slap right now.” Skeppy said, also standing up and stretching. “I can't  
believe we sat there for 6 hours.”  
“You know what they say,” Bad said, heading out into the living room. “Time flies when you're having fun!” Skeppy followed him and noticed that Sarah and Brandon were watching a black and white country movie on the couch in the living room. He waved to them as he shut the house’s door behind him and stepped out into the cold dark night. Bad’s car’s headlights turned on and he walked down the porch stairs and hopped into the passenger seat. The clock on the dashboard read 11:30 PM.   
“Waffle House?” Bad asked, looking over at Skeppy in the dim light from the car. In that moment, Skeppy noticed just how beautiful Bad really was. Skeppy felt like saying something, anything to tell Bad how he felt in that moment, but it passed and Skeppy looked away.  
“Skeppy?” Bad asked, putting his hand on Skeppy’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”  
“Oh, yeah.” Skeppy said, snapping out of it. “Waffle House is great.” Bad nodded and backed out of the driveway as Skeppy looked out the window at the trees passing by.

[Bad’s POV]  
Bad and Skeppy sat in silence as the car drove down the road in the direction of the Waffle House.   
“Skeppy this is unbearably awkward.” Bad said plainly.   
“I KNOW RIGHT,” Skeppy responded. “It seems like whenever we’re alone we just like- cannot communicate.”   
“It's like there's so much to say but no good way to say it.” Bad said with a sigh. “This is all so complicated.”  
“Right!” Skeppy said, “Like theres so many things I like about you and like so many confusing feelings I have just in general- It's just so much to deal with.” He ended his sentence and they went back to shooting each other awkward glances every now and then.  
“I want to kiss you.” Skeppy broke the silence, nearly causing Bad to veer off the road. He felt his face growing hot.  
“What?” He asked, looking over at Skeppy in shock.  
“Well uh,” Skeppy started awkwardly, pulling his hoodie over the bottom half of his face. “I mean, Soulmates are like… good kissers or something? Right?”  
“Well, Yeah.” Bad said, still in shock. “I think i've heard that before.”  
“That was so out of pocket, I'm sorry,” Skeppy said, sounding a bit amused.  
“What are you laughing at, you muffin?” Bad asked, confused  
“Sorry, you're just like so red right now.”  
“I am not!”   
“I can literally see you blushing- and it's like pitch black out.”  
Bad covered his face with his hoodie. “Not anymore, you muffin.”  
Eventually Bad pulled into the Waffle House parking lot. Skeppy hopped out of the car and looked towards the restaurant. Bad grabbed his phone from the cup holder and the soulmates walked into the Waffle House.  
They sat down next to each other at the bar and the lady behind the counter walked over to greet them.  
“Hi there!” she greeted them. “What can I get you fellas tonight?” Bad looked at the menu.   
“An original waffle, please.” He said.  
“I'll take the same.” Skeppy told her.   
They watched as the chefs prepared their waffles and brought them over. The lady sat the waffles down on the counter in front of them. She told them to enjoy their meal and Bad thanked her. Skeppy had already started eating his waffle.   
“Dude, I love how you can watch them make the waffle.” Skeppy said after eating a bite. Bad noticed that he was talking quieter than normal  
“Is something wrong?” He asked Skeppy.  
“No, no,” Skeppy said, looking away. “I still just can't believe I asked you that in the car.” He laughed a little. “Like we've only been together for like 2 days and i'm already like this.”  
“Well I can't imagine what you'll be like in the future then,” Bad said with a laugh. “I got so flustered in the car I nearly crashed!”   
“I guess we'll have to wait and see,” Skeppy said with a wink and a sly smile. Bad rolled his eyes good-naturedly in response.   
“I guess we will.”  
The two finished up their waffles and headed back into Bad's car.   
“Thanks for the waffles, Bad.” Skeppy said, fastening his seat belt. “Sweet of you to pay, I'll have to return the favor.”   
“Ah no, it's no problem,” Bad responded. “You being here was enough.” Skeppy covered his mouth as his smile turned into a yawn.   
“You're so cute.” Bad blushed in the dull light from the car, and again, Skeppy could see it. “Awwww, you get flustered so easily, it's adorable.” Skeppy was looking at Bad with a flirtatious grin on his face. He put his hand on the side of Bad’s face. Bad didn't know where he was going with this, but he didn't necessarily want his first kiss with his soulmate to be in a Waffle House parking lot. Fortunately for him, Skeppy pulled away and reclined his seat all the way back.   
“Can you roll back the sunroof?” He asked, gesturing to the top of the car. “The stars must be beautiful around here.”  
“Of course,” Bad said, rolling down the sunroof. The soulmates rode down the road, talking about whatever came to mind. Skeppy occasionally remarked on stars he saw, and Bad pointed out some deer standing frozen on the side of the road.   
Suddenly, Bad thought of something.   
“Skeppy, how do you feel about stargazing?”


	8. Chapter 8

“Stargazing?” Skeppy asked from his reclined chair. “Now that I think about it, I dont think ive ever really been stargazing before.”  
“Oh wow, really?” Bad asked. Stargazing was one of his favorite things to do with his roommates during the summer, but he had never gone this late into the winter.   
“There's a lot of light pollution down where I live, It's not really worth going you know?” Skeppy yawned again. “Man what time is it?”   
Bad looked at the clock on the dashboard. “It's 1:37, why?” He said to Skeppy.   
“My god, it feels so much later,” Skeppy said.   
The two talked for a little about random things until Bad parked the car in a deserted lot.   
“Are you gonna murder me or something?” Skeppy asked with a chuckle, looking around at the dark, lifeless scenery.   
“Nah,” Bad said with a smile.   
Bad led Skeppy through the forest for a while until they came to a clearing. The trees were dark and tall and the grass was soft. Bad laid the blanket that he had been carrying down and sat on it, patting the space next to him to indicate that Skeppy should sit down, which he did.   
“This place is beautiful, Bad,” Skeppy said. Bad looked at him as he stared up at the sky. He was beautiful. The stars twinkled in his eyes.  
“I know right?” Bad replied, laying down on the blanket. “I'm so glad you're here with me.” They shared that quiet, intimate moment for a little while longer until Bad realized how late it was.   
“Oh my goodness,” He said, sitting up. “It's probably about time we headed home.” Skeppy sat up too. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.   
“You're telling me,” He said. “I feel like i'm about to pass out.”  
“Woah are you okay?” Bad asked, concerned, taking Skeppy’s words a bit too literally. He put his hand on Skeppy’s back. Skeppy looked at him, confused.  
“Oh not like that!” Skeppy said, realizing his mistake. “I'm just really tired.” He laughed a little before planting a small kiss on Bad’s cheek. “Thank you for the concern though.” Skeppy hopped up off the blanket, leaving Bad shocked. He started walking in the direction of the car and Bad picked up the blanket and hurried after him.  
When they got to the car, Skeppy looked at Bad. “Pfft-” He laughed.  
“What!?” Bad said defensively.  
“You're still bright red,” Skeppy teased. “Was it that nice?”  
“I am not!” Bad said, ignoring the second half of the question.   
Skeppy rolled his eyes and smirked. “Sure, lover boy.”  
“You're the one who kissed me,” Bad countered.  
“True.” Skeppy reclined his seat again and Bad started up the car. “And I don't regret it.”  
When they finally got back to Bad’s house, Skeppy was so tired that he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Bad felt nearly as tired, but he still had somewhat of an adrenaline rush from when Skeppy had kissed him earlier. As they walked in, Bad recognized the sound of an old black and white country movie still playing. Brandon and Sarah were asleep on the couch. The tv was still on. Bad immediately was confronted by the same dilemma he had thought about a few nights ago. Where was Skeppy going to sleep?  
“Im exhausted, Bad.” Skeppy said, leaning on Bad’s shoulder a bit for support. “Im literally about to pass out on the floor.”  
Bad ran through possibilities in his mind, trying to think of any way he could have enough beds for everyone in the house. He didn't want to invade Brandon and Sarah’s personal space by sleeping in their rooms, and they were asleep on the couch, so that was off limits too.  
“Bad?” Skeppy asked, seeming to notice that his soulmate had not talked or moved for the past minute. “Is something wrong?”  
“Come to my room,” Bad whispered, gesturing to his sleeping roommates. “I don't want to wake them up.” Skeppy followed Bad through the dark house until they reached his room. He closed the door behind them.  
“What happened?” Skeppy asked, sounding a little more awake and a lot more worried.  
“I'm so so so sorry, Skeppy.” bad said, rubbing one of his eyes awkwardly. “There's not enough beds in this house, and Brandon and Sarah are on the couch…” Bad rubbed his other eye. “I'm such a bad hosttt.”  
Skeppy laughed, relieved. “My god man, you had me thinking Brandon and Sarah were dead in there or something, the way you were freaking out.” He yawned. “Honestly man, I'll sleep on the floor, I literally do not mind.”  
“But youre my guest!” Bad exclaimed. “I can't let a guest sleep on the floor!” Bad looked around the room like a magical extra bed would pop up out of nowhere. “Oh I know! I'll sleep on the floor and you can have my bed!” Bad said, moving to grab his sleeping bag from his closet.  
“What? No!” Skeppy said, grabbing Bad’s arm. “You've already been so nice to host me here, I can't make you sleep on the floor!” Bad stepped back from the closet and put his finger to his chin.   
“Well neither of us want each other to have to sleep on the floor, and there's no extra beds.” Bad started. ‘We’re kind of at an impasse here, Skeppy.”  
“I mean,” Skeppy started before shaking his head, seeming to think the idea was too far-fetched.  
“What?” Bad asked, “Anything is better than what we have now.”  
“We could always share the bed?” Skeppy said tentatively. Bad looked at him with an expression that seemed somewhere between amusement and mild confusion. But mostly confusion.   
“I mean, I guess we could.” They both glanced over at Bad’s queen sized bed. “It is a pretty big bed.”  
“Yep,” Skeppy agreed. “It is quite a large bed, there's plenty of room for both of us.”  
“We could put pillows between each other,” Bad suggested.   
“I mean we don't have to,” Skeppy said, shrugging.  
“You're right we totally don't have to,” Bad said.  
“Just because we're soulmates doesn't mean we have to cuddle or anything, right haha?”   
“I mean I wouldn't mind-”  
“Yeah I wouldn't either.”  
They changed out of their heavy winter clothes and put on some pajamas. Skeppy hopped under the covers first. He thought that Bad’s bed was pretty comfortable and his pillows were just like the ones he had at his house. Before Bad even came into the room, though, Skeppy was already out like a light.

[a/n: ill update better after this i swear]


	9. pancakes

The next morning, Skeppy woke up to see Bad’s sleeping face right next to him. He sat straight up, remembering the events of last night. He really had slept in the same bed as his soulmate… He looked back down at said soulmate, finding it odd how different he looked without his glasses. He laughed a little at Bad’s sleepy expression, feeling admiration in his chest. Eventually, Bad woke up to see Skeppy staring at him. He yawned.  
“Like what you see?” He asked, still waking up.  
“Pfft,” Skeppy laughed. “You just looked silly.” He rolled his eyes. He watched as Rat jumped out of her bed and hopped up next to Bad’s face. She licked him and he picked her up and held her over his head.   
“Good Morning Rat!” Bad greeted her with a smile. “Did you sleep well baby?” Skeppy thought back to the night before.  
“Wow Bad, I see how it is,” He said, feigning sadness. “Saying all that to your dog and just a ‘Like what you see’ for your soulmate.” He sighed and threw his hands up in the air dramatically.  
“Skeppyy!” Bad said, sitting up and holding Rat close to his chest. She tried to lick his face again. “I didn't mean it like that! I greet her like that every day! And -to be fair- we've only known we were soulmates for like, two days.”  
Skeppy flopped back down onto the bed and threw his arm over his face. “My own soulmate, loving his dog more than me…” Skeppy couldn't see Bad’s face but he knew he rolled his eyes.   
“Come on you muffinhead, lets go get breakfast.” Skeppy heard Bad walk over to the door and turn around to see him still laying on the bed. “Unless you're just gonna mope around all day.” Skeppy still didn't move. “Do you want me to come and get you myself?” Bad asked sarcastically  
“Yes.” Skeppy said monotonously. “Come pick me up Badboyhalo.”  
“Okay,” Bad laughed. “Stop using your streamer voice. I swear I cannot take you seriously. Next thing I know, you're going to be crying about sand again or something.”  
“Carry me, Badddddddd,” Skeppy whined. He heard Bad stifle a laugh.  
“Skeppy! Pff- i'm not gonna carry you!” Skeppy held back a smile. Trying his hardest to keep the bit going.  
“Bad if you don't pick me up, I'll lay here all day.”  
Bad laughed. “What-ever, muffinhead. But it's your loss, Sara makes really good pancakes, like really good pancakes.” Skeppy heard the door open. “I don't want mine to get cold, see you there!” He heard the door shut. Skeppy sat up.   
He smiled like an idiot, looking at the door. He thought back to the past streams he had done with Bad, all their past bits and inside jokes. But this was different, this was new. And it was definitely better. Skeppy rubbed his eyes and composed himself, silencing the feeling of warmth in his chest before walking out of the room to see if Sara’s pancakes were really all Bad had cracked them up to be.

Bad walked into the living room to see Brandon and Sara leaning up on the counter, looking at him. Sara raised her eyebrow and made a face, silently asking Bad what had happened.   
“Okay spill,” Brandon said, breaking the awkward silence. Bad felt his face go red and Sara smirked at Brandon, who raised his eyebrow.  
“Oh my goodness-” Bad said. “Now I have no idea what you guys are thinking but… nothing happened.” Bad looked back at his bedroom door, hoping that his reinforcement would come out of it soon.  
“Okay loverboy, then why are you blushing?” Sara asked.   
“Well, um,” Bad looked back at the door, silently hoping Skeppy would come in and ask for pancakes.  
“Where did he sleep?” Brandon asked, taking his kiss the cook apron off. Bad looked away.   
“Oooooo,” Sara nudged Brandon with her elbow “Good question,”  
Skeppy walked into the room, shutting Brandon and Sara up quick.   
“Morning!” He said brightly. Brandon and Sara looked at each other, then to Bad.  
“Morning Zak!” Sara said, smiling. “You want some pancakes?”  
“Ooooo yea!” Skeppy said, looking into the kitchen to try and catch a glimpse of the fabled pancakes. “Bad was telling me about how good they were.”  
“Well I hope I can live up to your expectations,” Sara said, sliding him the first plate of pancakes. Skeppy waited for everyone else to get their plate and the friends dug in.

“Those certainly did live up to my expectations,” Skeppy said after licking his plate clean. Sarah chuckled.   
“Gosh, thanks! You did seem to really enjoy them!” Sarah watched as Skeppy sat his plate back down on the table.   
“Hey, Zak.” Brandon said abruptly. “I'm sorry we stole the couch from you last night, I didn't know you were coming back.” Bad looked up at Brandon. Lucy was still by his chair, trying her hardest to reach the pancake he had been about to feed her. He squinted at Brandon, unable to tell if he was trying to get Skeppy to divulge what had happened last night or if he was genuinely sorry for taking the couch. Brandon seemed to notice his stare and glanced back at him. “Rude of me, sorry bro.” He finished, looking back at Skeppy.  
Skeppy yawned. “Oh no problem man,” He started, waving his hand as if he was dismissing the possibility that Brandon could be rude. “Me and Bad made do just fine.” Skeppy took a sip of his orange juice. Bad saw Brandon and Sara smile at each other.  
“That's good, that's good.” Sara said.   
“Yeaaaaa, he's a very good host if you know what I mean.” Skeppy said nonchalantly.  
“S-skeppy?” Bad asked. “What exactly do you mean by that? Why did you say it like that?” He could feel his face getting a bit red.  
“Oh you know,” Skeppy said, looking at his orange juice. Sara shot Bad a look and Bad put his head on the table.  
“I mean you are right,” Bad started. “I am a very good host, but why did you say it like that?”  
“Like what?” Skeppy asked, “I was just saying you're a good host.”  
“No but you like- said it in a way that kinda sounded like you were implying something.”  
“What would I have been implying, Bad?” Sara and Brandon had been looking back and forth between the two like their conversation was a ping pong game, trying to get any info that they possibly could.  
“Well- I don't know, Skeppy.” Bad said, rolling his eyes.  
“I think you do.” Skeppy said. “I mean, you were there weren't you?”  
“It depends on what you're implying-”  
“Ok, ok break it up lovebirds.” Brandon said. Sara was trying not to laugh. “Ske- I mean Zak,” Brandon started.  
“You can call me Skeppy if you want,” Skeppy interjected with a shrug.  
“Oh, ok thanks,” Brandon said. “Zak, is there anything you wanted to do down here?”  
“Good question!” Bad said, happy to be off of Skeppy’s earlier, confusing tangent.  
Skeppy thought for a minute before thinking back to the knives he had seen in Bad's room the night before. “Do you think we could go knife throwing?”


End file.
